Gerald Walters never dreamed of a career in education, although his recent success as a music teacher at Riley Elementary School showed another side to him.

Admired by his peers and students, he was recently selected as the school's teacher of the year. Although he is relatively new to this position, as a faculty member, he has proven himself in just two years. 

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During that time, Walters largely drew on his musical background from learning piano from middle school. As a college student at Florida A&M University, he played the alto saxophone in Marching 100 and was a member of the FAMU Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Band, Gospel Choir, and Concert Choir.

Even though he has all the experience as a musician, he still relies on other music educators to learn best teaching practices. "I have received a lot of help from my colleagues, and their knowledge and expertise are very generous," Walters said. "I can't do it without these people."

Mary Register is one of them. She is a senior music teacher at Springwood Elementary School and serves as a music developer in the area. She recognizes that the demand for professional development opportunities for teachers has been greatly reduced due to the pandemic. Continuing education is very important to all teachers, especially new teachers like Walters.

"In the past few years, we have had a lot of teacher replacements, and we haven't been on-the-job drumming for a long time," explained Register. "We have many new teachers who may have just graduated from their degree programs, and they may not have much drumming experience in class." 

The school budget is particularly tight these days, and Register knew she needed to identify an external resource to support the seminar she envisioned. What she didn't know was that the Council of Culture and Arts (COCA) had just received a grant through the Duke Energy Foundation's Strong Community Program to fund such professional development opportunities. 

Register and COCA invited Giving Tree Music, Inc. to lead a 6-hour "game shop" open to all elementary school music teachers in the area. This nationally recognized organization promotes teacher training and drum circles, and Steve Turner has been in this type of work for more than 20 years. 

"At this point, from nuns to prisons and everything in between, I really don't have a group that hasn't worked," Turner said. He hopes that teachers will see that they don’t need a classroom full of drums for students to have a meaningful music production experience. "Everything can be used as a drum," he emphasized. This concept provides freedom for teachers who have a limited collection of musical instruments.

Turner brought a series of drums and other percussion options for attendees to try. Encourage teachers to bring some of their own classroom percussion instruments to learn new ways to integrate them into teaching. Mich'ele Barrington brought her favorite bomber. They are lightweight, hollow, color-coded plastic tubes, adjusted to pitch by length. 

Barrington is a music teacher at Sabal Palm Elementary School. She said: “Boomwhackers are one of the cheapest music apps, and kids love them. I don’t have a lot of tubano and djembe drums, so I’m going to try the drum ring. There are bass drums, tambourines and some of our other percussion instruments.”

Barrington added that because such professional development opportunities have been rare in the past few years, the drum seminar feels like “a breath of fresh air. We have to learn and play. As a teacher, you are always a student. I I got a lot of ideas from this seminar and I can add them to what I have done and some new things I can try. It keeps the excitement, it is always good to get more ideas and become a teacher again ."

Walters agreed with these points and said: "This is very valuable because it gives me a lot of choices on how to attract students. Drumming is something that every student can participate, regardless of their skill level. The Internet is for me. The best part, because you can gather ideas and hear what other people are doing."

Register hopes to have such a result, and admits that "As music teachers, we are like an island in our own school. Every school has an elementary school music teacher, so getting together like this is for us to connect, support and encourage each other. A way." 

"This is a great opportunity. We don't know, week after week, what the next change will be. When I came this morning, the faces of the teachers looked nervous. Everyone was tired, but now everywhere It's all smiles and people are more energetic. They are connecting," Register said. 

Turner's main goal is to promote these types of connections through drumming, and he wants teachers to experience it so they can pass it on to students. "Drums don't care what color you are, who you love, who you admire, or where you were born. They just give people a chance to connect. This is the most important thing for the future of our world."   

This article is part of the COCA Creativity Persists series, focusing on how regional art educators continue to teach and inspire during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amanda Karioth Thompson (Amanda Karioth Thompson) is the Assistant Director of the Culture and Arts Committee. COCA is the umbrella agency for arts and culture in the capital region (www.tallahasseearts.org). 

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